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THE THIRD
METRIC
HUFFINGTON
10.20.13
This Is Your
Body on
Exercise
PHOTO: LONDONEYE/GETTY IMAGES, ILLUSTRATIONS: JAN DIEHM
BY SARAH KLEIN
WHETHER YOU DO it to lose
weight, to reach a fitness goal or
— dare we say it? — just for fun,
exercise changes you.
There’s the red face and the
sweating, the pounding heart and
pumping lungs, the boost to your
alertness and mood, the previously
nonexistent urges to talk about
nothing but splits and laps and PBs.
But while we all know that
staying physically active is essential to a long, healthy, productive life, we don’t often
understand exactly what’s happening behind the scenes.
We asked the experts to take
us through — from head to toe —
what happens in the body when we
exercise. Neuroscientist Judy Cameron, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, Tommy Boone,
Ph.D., a board certified exercise
physiologist, and Edward Laskowski, M.D., co-director of the Mayo
Clinic Sports Medicine Center spill
the beans on what gets and keeps
you moving.